Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-09-22
KING SOLOMON AND ART.
The Patronage He Extended and Some
of the Productions.

of the Productions.
Among the rulers of the Jews. King
Solomon stands alone as an art patron, for
none before him and none after possessed
the riches and repose essential to patron
of the arts. His reign was politically the
golden age of Israel, and as the outcome of
his fathers warlike and victorious admin
istration he inherited wealth, peace and a
kingdom that was at unity with itself.
Then for the first time and the last did the
Hebrews rank among the great powers.
able to meet even the Egyptians on equal
terms; extorting tribute from all the sur-
rounding Canaanitish tribes. with the ex-
ception of the Phenicians. The policy of
David had been as judicious as it was
courageous and, perceiving that the con-
quest of the narrow strip of coast held
by the PhGhicians would bring no ad-
vantage to the pastoral tribes of Israel.
he had remained at peace with his
nelghbors. The Jews had no knowl-
edge of shipbuilding or naviga-
ton which would enable them to use
the Phenician ports, 50 that the expulsion
OF these Canaanites would have been n DOS
tive loss; while, on the other hand,
Phenicians and Israelites alike had much
to gain by friendly intercourse, SO that the
friendship contracted between David and
the sea-coast kings was built on the sure
rock OF mutual convenience and self-inter-
est. 1t was not only that he was very
beautiful in person, gracious in manner.
brilliant and wise in speech. that he lnher-
tied IN great measure his fathers poetic
genus and love Of music but he devoted
himself IN an unprecedented degree to
the internal government of his king
dom, and he possessed 10 perfection the
Hebrew talent of commerce. True. he
early showed signs OF the defects natural
to men of his temperament the sensu-
business of the "Song of Songs betrays
character naturally inclined to self
Indulgence and luxury, and his mar
rlage with the daughter of the King of
Egypt, contracted for reasons of state
policy suggests that even in his youth he
Regarded the obligations of religion
lightly. The marriage was regarded with
something like Mortified surprise on the
part Of the Israelites, but it fulfilled its
immediate purpose by cementing peace
with Egypt and promoting commerce in
the linens and woolens of the Hebrews
who received in exchange the Egyptian
war-horses and chariots which solomon,
contrary to Hebrew tradition, deemed
essential to the maintenance of peace.
Some show of power was indeed necessary
to secure the safety of a city overlooking
with gold and Jewels as Jerusalem
became in Soiomon's later days; and that
he restrained his people from warfare was
rather because he placed high value on
peace than because he had no occasion for
war. The great glory of Jerusalem was
the Temple, monument rather of wealth
than of artistic skill. 1t, like all Solo
mons buildings, was designed by a
Phgnician architect; and the skilled work
men who carved the wood and stone and
wrought the gold and founded the
brass were citizens of Tyre and Sidon, only
the rough labor being provided by the
$4,000 Canaanite settlers who were drafted
of to the forests of Lebanon to hew timber,
and TO the port of Joppa to carry the ma
terials from the seaboard to Jerusalem.
Of the architecture Of the Temple we know
little, except It's proportions, and that,
like most temples Of antiquity, it was d.
vlded into three courts called, in this case.
the porch, the holy place, and the holy of
holes. 1t was EXTREMITY small, measuring
only thirty-fve feet in width, while the
total length was only one hundred and five
feet;so that its impressiveness depended on
its golden walls and pillars, floor and cell
ings, its precious jewels and the richness
of the embroidered hangings that curtained
of the sanctuary. And mingled with all
this gold we read of brass, a
compound that seems to have been
scarcely less esteemed in those
days, when the tin mines of Spain
and Cornwall were among the recent dis
coVeries Of the Phpnicians, and the brass
made at Tyre from the tin of Tarshish or
Spain and the copper from Cyprus was still
fancy article, commanding very high
price. The cost Of this golden temple was
betrayed by the moneys left by David and
by the offerings of the people, but heavy
taxes were levied to create funds for the
palaces, towns and fortreSses that arose in
such ruinously rapid succession. No ex-
chequer could long endure such n drain,
no nation support 50 vast and sumptuous
Court, without murmuring; and though
We do not know what was the relative
values OF gold and of the commodities of
life, the stress laid upon the fact that all
tie vessels in the palaces were of
gold points to the conclusion that this pro-
vision was as sumptuous in those days as it
would be in our own.-MdgGziJae Of Art for
October
.